Giving Alice Christmas
by idealskeptic
Summary: Jasper/Alice. Pre-Twilight. Alice isn't an easy person to surprise but Jasper is determined to do it, even after just a year with her. He wants to give her whatever she wants so that she'll always be happy. With Peter and Charlotte's help, he gives her Christmas.


**Disclaimer: **All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note: **I wrote this as a Christmas present just for the super sweet Cordelia85 (go read her stories!) and she's given me permission to share it with anyone else who loves Jasper and Alice as much as she and I do so… ENJOY!

* * *

**Giving Alice Christmas**

_December 1949_

Surprising Alice wasn't easy, but Jasper was determined to do it. He hadn't known her long but he already knew that he would move heaven and earth just to see her smile.

As the snow fell on the Rocky Mountains, he noticed her smiling every time she saw the Christmas decorations in the small town where they were staying. But her smile never quite reached the warm butterscotch eyes he found himself staring into so often.

It wasn't hard to figure out why – she'd never experienced Christmas. She'd lived through them, eighteen or nineteen as a human, but she didn't remember a single thing. So she smiled because families had Christmas trees and all that came with them, but she wasn't truly happy because she didn't have one.

She didn't say it, she didn't think she could have it, but she wanted it.

And Jasper was going to give her Christmas.

* * *

"She's going to notice if she comes back and you've killed all the deer in the Rocky Mountains," Peter pointed out from where he was perched lazily on a snow covered rock. "Don't you think you'd be safer just drinking a human?"

"No," Jasper said firmly as he buried yet another deer carcass. "She wants me to have the same color eyes she does, she wants me to follow this diet, and I'm going to. On Christmas, my eyes will be as yellow as they can be."

"Yellow doesn't sound romantic, call it … amber." He hopped down from the rock and strolled over to his friend. "In any case, if you insist on going into town on Christmas, try not to kill anyone. I'd bet Alice would be sad about that."

"Sad, yes," Jasper agreed, "but she'd never say so. She'd just tell me that everything will be fine."

"Which would be worse for you," Peter finished helpfully. "So what did you want again; Christmas decorations and a pine tree?"

"Christmas decorations in that cabin we found," he clarified, "because the tree is already there. Just clean up the cabin and make sure there's wood by the fireplace, alright?"

Peter saluted him playfully. "On it, although I'm not sure why you trust me to buy Christmas decorations."

Jasper sighed and explained it patiently. "You haven't been a vampire that long, you remember what Christmas is supposed to be and, more importantly, Alice won't think you getting all that stuff together has anything to do with me, or her."

"She'll see me getting it, won't she?"

He shrugged and wiped his hands on a handkerchief he kept in his pocket. "She'll think it's for Charlotte."

"Excellent point, Jasper," Peter said with a grin. "I knew all that too, I was just making you think through it again to be sure you didn't miss anything."

Jasper saluted him that time. "That's why I keep you around," he smirked.

* * *

"Where did you get the money for this?" Charlotte asked Alice as they looked through racks of clothes at the Sears & Roebucks store. "Did you steal it? Why don't we just steal the clothes?"

Alice tried not to recoil at the idea of stealing, something she'd given up as soon as she figured out how, because she knew it was all Charlotte knew. "I played poker and won the money," she explained in a voice the humans in the store couldn't hear. "My gift helps me a lot. I found $5 on the ground in Philadelphia while I waited for Jasper and I turned that into the $5,000 I have now. I've spent some, of course. I don't like stealing," she added quietly.

Remembering her assignment from Jasper, Charlotte drifted toward a rack of women's wool short coats. "What about one these?" she asked curiously. "This red one would look so good with your black and white plaid dress underneath. And it's so Christmas-y."

Alice fingered the soft fabric and sighed. She wanted to look Christmas-y but she wasn't sure if it would just make her sad. "I thought we were shopping for new clothes for you, Charlotte," she pointed out, remembering the reason she was in a store with a vampire who hunted humans.

"We are, but you have to get something too. I won't let you buy me anything if you don't buy yourself something too."

Never one to need convincing to shop, Alice bobbed her head in agreement. "Do you really like the red one or should I get the caramel colored one instead?"

"Red," Charlotte answered firmly. "Definitely red. Get that and you can buy me those boots I tried on, then we better go make sure the boys are only up to good."

Alice tapped her temple and giggled. "They're fine."

"What are they doing?" It was test; Charlotte wanted to see if Alice was suspicious.

"Jasper's hunting deer," she replied cryptically, excited for her friend even if she was a little jealous. "I'm not telling you what Peter's doing."

Trying not to get too excited, the tiny blonde vampire bounced just a little. "Why not?"

"It's a surprise, for you," Alice said, shaking her head as they walked to the cash register.

Charlotte barely swallowed a squeal of delight.

* * *

Jasper could have sat in the corner of the house he and Alice were sharing with Peter and Charlotte for eternity and been happy doing nothing more than watching the tiny vampire who'd danced into his life and made his existence worth enduring.

All she had to do was smile at him and the dark thoughts that clouded his mind evaporated so quickly he sometimes wasn't sure they'd ever been there.

"Look at the snow, Jasper," Alice said with an excited sort of breathlessness in her voice, "isn't it pretty?"

He told her it was beautiful, but he was talking more about her watching the snow fall. "Get dressed, Alice," he said, seeing that it was almost time to go. "Wear your new coat and your black and white dress, alright?"

Her eyes went blank for a moment as she tried to see why he said what he did – she saw that she would soon be in a church with him. For a moment, a long moment, she was very worried that her visions were deceiving her because that just didn't seem possible. She shook her head and smiled at him. "Alright," she agreed warily, deciding she trusted him enough to see this through. "I'll just be a minute. Are Charlotte and Peter coming … wherever we're going?"

"No, they have other plans," he said simply.

"They aren't hunting tonight, are they?" Alice asked nervously. "It's Christmas Eve, after all."

"They're not hunting. They're skiing, aren't they?" He could tell she was nervous about whatever she'd seen and didn't quite trust herself so he told her something that she would have seen to reassure her.

Her eyes went blank again and she nodded confidently, even though she was still confused by the church thing she'd seen. "Yes, they're skiing."

"See? Now go get dressed, Alice."

She did as he asked her, trusting him completely just as she had the day she opened her eyes as a vampire. When she returned to the main room of the house, Jasper was waiting for her. Instead of his usual checked shirt and sturdy pants, he was wearing a dark suit and tie. She'd seen that but hadn't believed it either.

"You look beautiful, Alice," he said as he held out his hand to her. He kissed her hand when she put it in his. "Are you ready to go?"

She was, so they left the house hand-in-hand.

* * *

Alice's vision hadn't failed her. Jasper led her up the steps to a small stone church on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. One of the earliest to ever be built in the area, it was lit mostly by candlelight and Alice was a little mesmerized by the way the firelight sparkled on the newly fallen snow. It was only Jasper's tug on her hand that made her step inside.

"There are a lot of people here," she whispered to him, worried that he wouldn't want to be there.

"Is anything going to happen?" he asked her softly.

She looked and shook her head. "No."

Jasper looked down into her butterscotch eyes and found himself lost in them. It was only her cupping a gloved hand around his chin that brought him back to the moment. "Sorry," he said, smiling down at her. "So you want to stay?"

Nodding eagerly, she slipped into the last pew in the church. Jasper sat next to her, glad they were close to the door – just in case – but more than willing to squash the urging and thirst if it made Alice happy on their second Christmas together.

He spent most of the next two hours watching her. He heard the prayers and the music and the singing, but for Jasper, it was all about Alice.

She didn't really notice him watching her. She was fixated on the prayers and the music and the singing. She never let go of his hand, though, and she made sure that he felt every bit of the gratitude and joyous happiness that she felt.

That made things so much easier on him.

They were the first to slip out of the church at the end of the Christmas Eve mass.

* * *

"Are we going back to Peter and Charlotte?" Alice asked as Jasper linked his arm through hers as they walked down the street.

"Aren't you looking at the future at all?" Jasper countered rather than answering.

She smiled shyly and dropped her eyes. "I'm trying not to. Something tells me that being surprised tonight will make me very happy. If I see it, I see it. But I'm not looking."

"Good plan," he agreed with a grin. "I hope it'll make you happy, anyway."

"There's more?" Alice asked hesitantly, trying not to bounce at the idea.

"There's more," Jasper confirmed, trying not to be nervous about how the rest would go. "Want to take a walk through the town with me?"

She did, and he had to hold back a little before she walked too fast in the after-church crowd. They walked down residential streets and looked at the families settling in for the night, still recovering from the war and moving on with their lives together.

Alice couldn't resist making use of her superhuman side and darting up to windows to peek in and see decorated trees and flickering candles. Jasper even gave in a couple times and went with her. His memories of Christmas in Texas during the mid-1800s were hazy at best, and maybe it was Alice's emotional influence, but seeing families happy and content and hopeful made him happier than he remembered being in a very long time.

"Come on, Alice," he said when he caught sight of a clock on the mantel in one house. "We have somewhere to be soon."

Alice was very confused. She was so focused on the fact that she didn't remember ever having had a time where she had to be somewhere that she didn't even look to see where she needed to be.

Jasper kissed her cheek gently. "Trust me, Alice," he murmured in her ear.

She exhaled and nodded. "Always, Jasper."

* * *

The run to the outside of the city went fast, but not fast enough that Alice couldn't see what she wanted to see. As they traveled higher into the Rocky Mountains, the houses were spaced further and further apart. The sky was cloudless and starlit, creating a broad expanse of crisp white snow covering that sparkled like her own skin when the sun shimmered on it. Somehow, the snow was more beautiful. It was clean and fresh and unmuddied by anything at all.

"You're easily distracted, ma'am," Jasper said lightly, drawling the words as he slowed to match her near walking pace across a flat expanse of snow. "But don't worry, I don't mind."

"Look around, sir," she said, mimicking his drawl playfully. "Isn't it so pure and beautiful? Even the scents in the air, it's all just fresh and new."

He could give her that. It was all the things she said, and even more than that. The snow muffled the noises of the forests, even to his ears, and it was honestly kind of mesmerizing to someone who could usually hear, see, and feel everything.

For the moment, Alice was everything.

"Now who's easily distracted?" she teased him, tugging on his hand. "Don't we have somewhere to be?"

* * *

When they reached the crest of the hill, Jasper pulled Alice to a stop. "Try not to see, okay?" he requested as he put his hands over her eyes. "What do you smell?"

Her tiny nose sniffed the air curiously. "You. Snow. Pine trees. Wood. Fire. Water."

"Good, you're focused on all the right things. Well, you can ignore the water," he added as an afterthought, "it's just a creek nearby." Her emotions told him that she had no idea what was about to happen and that made him happy.

She gasped when he swept her off her feet with one arm, keeping her eyes covered with the other. But she trusted him. Before she knew it, she was inside – but where? "Can I look now?" she begged impatiently, intrigued by the scents of ginger, cinnamon, and pine wherever she was.

"Only with your eyes," he agreed as he uncovered them.

Alice gasped again, and then her eyes burned with tears of happiness that would never fall.

The room was warm and brightly lit by a fire in the stone fireplace that occupied one corner of the room. The other corner, near the window, was filled completely with a pine tree that was covered in glittering ornaments and strands of tinsel. On top the tree sat a porcelain angel wrapped in a lacy dress.

"Jasper?" Alice breathed unsteadily as she gripped his hand tightly. "What is all this?"

"It's Christmas, Alice," he whispered in her ear. "Your very own Christmas tree, fireplace with stockings hunger over it … do you like it?"

Her smile nearly blinded him when she turned to face him. "It's not mine, Jasper," she corrected him, leaning against his chest and looking up at him, "it's ours. At least for today."

"Not today," he said, taking a turn to correct her, "forever. I bought this place and fixed it up a little. It's for you, your Christmas present. If you want it." He was suddenly very nervous.

"I do," she told him passionately, "if you stop saying you and your and start saying _our_. I've seen the future, Jasper, you don't get rid of me any time soon."

His smile nearly blinded her. "I'm glad to hear that, ma'am," he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her. "Merry Christmas, Alice."

She stood on her tiptoes and he leaned down to catch her kiss. "Merry Christmas, Jasper."

**The End**


End file.
